Fumie is still miserably sick, so after school, I took Anthony over to play with three-year-old Gen (Zak's son, who has appeared on my blog plaing with Anthony here and here).

We went exploring in western Otsu where the city meets the mountain, with plenty to see and photograph, although I didn't quite get as many photos as yesterday. We got back late (after a delicious Zak-cooked meal... thanks!) and I haven't even looked through all the pics yet, but I wanted to post a few before heading to bed....

A couple of hours (and a couple of hundred pictures) [...]

Fumie's Grandmother, Kine Imai, passed away at the end of April. This past weekend was the second part of the funeral, the kotsuiri – 骨入 – the "placing of the bones".

A month or so ago, as part of the main funeral, the body was cremated such that there were still some rather large chunks of bone remaining. A typical Japanese (Buddhist) funeral includes a ceremony where family members use chopsticks to pluck certain bone fragments with symbolic meaning from the ashes, placing them into a small pot (as shown here), and we all did this, including five-year-old Anthony. It's [...]

Here's a hint: a correct answer names something practical, not ornamental.

We're finally getting our money's worth out of this kid. 🙂

Trying to get him to put away a toy he's just finished playing with is like pulling teeth, but for some reason, he enjoys cleaning the veranda. I dunno. It may have something to do with being able to freely splash water around....

I don't know where this is going, but we're sure going to milk it for all it's worth....

More pictures from Kevin and Yoko Parrington's wedding.

Kevin is the youngest of 10 kids, and – according to the "life history" that he wrote about himself for the reception guests – the cutest of them all. Not all his family could make it to Japan for the wedding, so I thought I'd publish a few more pics right away, for their benefit...

Their time was divided pretty evenly between posing for photos and other stuff (where "other stuff" encompasses random little things like actually getting married, visiting with guests, cutting the cake, etc.). There was a lot of posing.